Posts Tagged ‘Total War: Warhammer II – Rise of the Tomb Kings’

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Aw MAN! Just when I’d started up a great new running gag for the appearance of GTA V in the charts, this week it’s fallen out! And Divinity: Original Sin 2 has finally failed to make the grade for the first time this year. However, you’ll be relieved to learn CS:GO and Plunkles don’t let us down and wearily continue their infinite reigns.

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I know I can’t be the first to say this, but this is the first chance I’ve had to moan about it and you can’t stop me. Why oh why is Total War: Warhammer 2 not just called ‘Total Warhammer 2’? As far as I’m concerned, consistent branding can get in the bin when there’s an opportunity that good.

Oh yes, the news: Total Warhammer 2’s first expansion is out today. As Fraser Brown will tell you in his Rise of the Tomb Kings review, those disgusting mummies form a new playable faction that’s into early aggression and raising disposable zombie armies, just like an old flatmate of mine. There’s also a patch for the base game, which includes a revamp for the poor old Bretonnians as well as some new legendary buildings.

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The big news on the Total War: Warhammer II scene next week is the launch of its first expansion, Rise of the Tomb Kings (read our review of it), but there’s good news for an older faction too. Recognising that Bretonnia were a little left out when others were powered up for Twarhammer 2, developers Creative Assembly are buffing the fantasy Frenglishmen in the update launching alongside Tomb Kings. They’ll receive new tech and abilities, including tools to better combat the sequel’s new factions. Read the rest of this entry »

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I can sympathise, at least a little, with the ancient Egyptian-themed undead known as the Tomb Kings, and who are Total War: Warhammer 2’s newest faction. A decade ago, I was trapped underneath the Great Pyramid of Giza for a mere 20 minutes while another tourist had a claustrophobia-induced panic attack. Waking up inside a pyramid and discovering that your innards are full of embalming fluid and you have only rags to hide your desiccated shame would, I imagine, be a little bit more unpleasant. No wonder they want to murder all the living.

With a chip on their bony shoulders and an appetite for power and conquest, the Tomb Kings are comfortable fit for Total War, even more so than their multitude of warlike adversaries. They’re an unceasing military machine that has yet to discover a problem that it can’t fling an infinite number of disposable animated corpses at, over and over again. This new faction is, however, something of an acquired taste, with some uneven integration into the campaign – but nonetheless the Tomb Kings are a surprisingly forgiving starting point for newcomers.

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If you’ve ever come back from holiday to find that your flatmates/children/parents have flooded the kitchen/dyed the cat blue/thrown out all your original Jethro Tull LPs, then spare a thought for the Tomb Kings, Total War: Warhammer II’s first all-new DLC faction. Once upon a time, they ruled a pseudo-Ancient Egyptian empire in which scholars quested for the secret to eternal youth and tyrants went merrily to the grave, confident of resurrection in paradise. Several millennia and a couple of necromancy wars later, the mummified Kings stumble from their pyramids to find their bodies reduced to KFC leftovers, their southern homeland of Nehekhara trashed, and the continent awash with bearded barbarians, talking rats and stupid sexy dinosaurs.

Unfortunately for all the younger races, the Tomb Kings are far stronger in death than they were in life. I spent half an hour getting to grips with their quirks, including a series-first crafting system. Here are my thoughts.

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The Tomb Kings are not a crust punk gang who meet in the vaults of Greyfriars Kirkyard. No, they’re a Warhammer rabble riffing on Ancient Egyptian beliefs, a faction of ancients pharaohs and their servants, risen to rebuild their empire. We’ve known for a while that these sandy sorts are headed to Total War: Warhammer II in paid DLC, and now we know when: January 23rd. Alongside this news, the developers today released a cinematic trailer giving a peek at the Tomb Kings, them with their skeletal warriors, animal-headed giants, scorpions of stone and bone, serpentine sentinels, bonebirds, Necrosphinxes, and oh my god is that a giant statue shooting zapbeams out its eyes? Read the rest of this entry »